A colleague in Rome...

sends this report  about the Synod, a useful read. And this is really an essential read. As is this.

Auntie has been busy in Krakow, interviewing people for EWTN...we drove here from the Tatra mountains via a popular local  Marian shrine...Krakow is beautiful in Autumn sunshine with faint occasional sprinklings of rain...

Cardinal Dziwisz is about to fly to Rome for the beatification of Paul VI. More and more, Paul VI's courageous encyclical Humanae Vitae is proving prophetic and wise. The mid-session report from the current  Synod meeting in Rome - which, as already noted (see below, and umpteen comments elsewhere including the links above) is somewhat mixed - does say some useful things on this subject:

"53. It is not difficult to notice the spread of a mentality that reduces the generation of life to a variable of an individual's or a couple's plans. Economic factors sometimes have enough weight to contribute to the sharp drop in the birthrate which weakens the social fabric, compromising the relationship between generations and rendering the view of the future less certain. Being open to life is an intrinsic requirement of married love.

54. Probably here as well what is required is a realistic language that is able to start from listening to people and acknowledging the beauty and truth of an unconditional opening to life as that which human life requires to be lived to its fullest. It is on this base that we can rest an appropriate teaching regarding natural methods, which allow the living in a harmonious and aware way of the communication between spouses, in all its dimensions, along with generative responsibility. In this light, we should go back to the message of the Encyclical Humanae Vitae of Paul VI, which underlines the need to respect the dignity of the person in the moral evaluation of the methods of birth control."

Such attitudes will be felt by some commentators to be scandalous, and I remember, back in the early 1970s, horrible and vicious attacks on Paul VI with people saying  "I'm praying he'll die soon" and so on and so on...

And now Paul VI is rightly honoured by the Church, and his successors upheld the teaching, and will continue to do so down all the years to come...and there will be rejoicing in Heaven at this beatification, and joy in the hearts of Catholics worldwide.